Solidarity 413, 10th August 2016

Momentum activist and teacher trade unionist Laura Rogers spoke at the Jeremy Corbyn rally at Heartlands, Cornwall. As a teacher I know something about bullying and what Jeremy Corbyn has endured would not be tolerated in any classroom. Thank you Jeremy for not being cowed because the other thing we know about bullies is that they act from a place of fear. And they are right to be afraid. Ten years ago, I chose to become a teacher in the belief that it is one small way to help change people’s lives and in doing so change the world. Schools are communities which teach children how to be in the...

Picture the scene. You’re at your local Labour Party ward meeting and you start reading the agenda: apologies, minutes, minutes of the minutes, officers’ reports, Councillors’ reports, report on ‘the curse of dog shit’, AOB. You put up your hand to say that you’re a bit concerned about what you‘ve been hearing about people on the left being expelled from the party and hostility to Momentum supporters... A. Very, very sorry but there is no time to discuss that right now. Put it forward for a future meeting after the elections, after the “anti-dog shit” drive, the leaflet drop, after the post...

Corbyn′s campaign has published ten pledges. In this and future issues of Solidarity , we will be critically examining these pledges. Here, Charlotte Zalens looks at the ″security at work″ pledge. The “security at work” pledge goes further towards outlining a positive charter of workers′ rights, stating: ″We will give people stronger employment rights from day one in a job, end exploitative zero hours contracts and create new sectoral collective bargaining rights, including mandatory collective bargaining for companies with 250 or more employees. ″We will create new employment and trade union...

“There are too immigrants in parts of Britain”, is roughly what Owen Smith, Labour’s leadership challenger, on Newsnight on 25 July. In response to James O’Brien’s question about whether there were too many migrants in Britain, he said, “In some places the way in which we saw a rapid influx in particular of Eastern European migrants after ascension of those countries to Europe, definitely caused downward pressure on wages, definitely caused changes to local terms and conditions for some workers in some sectors.” He described Eastern European migration in dehumanising terms as “an influx of...

Top UK company bosses now earn on average 129 times the pay of the workers employed by their firms. The High Pay Centre’s annual report released this week shows that the bosses of top firms now earn an average of £5.5 million per year. That is a 10% rise on last year. On average workers’ pay rose 2% in 2015, according to the Office of National Statistics. Top paid boss is Martin Sorrell of advertising company WPP. Sorrell pocketed £70 million in 2015. And Bob Dudley, the BP boss, took home £13.3 million, despite the company making a loss of $6.5 billion.

On Friday 5 August, Black Lives Matter protests blocked roads and shut down traffic in London, Nottingham and Birmingham. The protests were called on the 5th anniversary of the killing of Mark Duggan and Black Lives Matter UK say they were protesting against the deaths in police custody of black and minority ethnic (BAME) people. BAME people are more likely to die in police custody or jail in the UK. Since 1990, 1,500 people have died in custody, 500 of them were BAME despite only 14% of the UK population being BAME. Protestors in London chained themselves together across the M4 on the way to...

Last month, students and education workers protested in Parliament Square as the House of Commons passed the Higher Education Bill at its second reading. After the protest National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts activists marched to the Department of Education, and staged a brief sit-in inside the building chanting “Drop the Bill”. The Bill will now continue progressing through Parliament. If passed, it will implement reforms that will force teachers, departments and universities to compete on market-oriented metrics that will be used to raise fees, and will drive public universities to go...

I am the secretary of the Northern JDC. I voted against the contract, I ran a campaign against. I think it is discriminatory, unfair and does not address the issues and concerns of junior doctors. I believe that we need to step up our action against imposition. Plans are being put in place; I will use my new position to argue that these plans reflect the views of the members. That imposition is not acceptable. That this contract is not acceptable and we must robustly face it down. The BMA must call more industrial action and this should be a clear escalation. Junior doctors should not be asked...

Rhea Wolfson, newly elected socialist member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee, spoke to Solidarity . Congratulations on your election to Labour’s NEC. What do you see as your priorities now? The first thing is to see that the recommendations from the Chakrabarti Report are implemented. The Labour Party needs clear and transparent procedures for individuals and organisations accused of misconduct. I am particularly concerned about the suspensions of Wallasey Labour Party and Brighton, Hove and District Party. Those Labour Party organisations need to be reassured that any...

Between 1997 and 2010 Labour Party membership collapsed by 60% (407,000 to 185,000). Slight increase under Miliband. At time of 2015 General Election: 201,000 members. Party is now biggest social-democratic party in Europe. During 2015 leadership contest 116,000 new members joined. Between 12th September (Corbyn’s election) and end of year another 87,000 new members joined. By January 2016 party had 388,000 members. Number of new Labour Party members in 2015 greater than the entire membership of the Conservative Party. After launch of MPs’ coup against Corbyn over 100,000 people joined Labour...